Page 94 of The Other Side of the Mirror

Aviel careened backwards, plunging into the dark. Every soldier caught in the blast ceased to exist between one breath and another, as if they had simply disappeared into the night and been consumed by it. My sword fell to my side. When I looked around, my friends were staring at me with awe, their blades forgotten in their hands. Tobias grinned crookedly.

When my eyes found Bash, he was looking at me like I was everything.

With a deep bow in my direction, he sprang into action, using the distraction to lead Tobias away. He slipped through my darkness as it drifted lovingly around him. Taking Tobias not toward the stairwell, but toward the now empty antechamber where Aviel had lain in wait. Toward what I hadn’t noticed until now, but Bash, of course, had…

A black mirror stood in the back of the room. It was edged in a dark, glossy material that seemed to absorb all the light around it, as if its entrance was not to a portal, but a black hole. The surface of the mirror shimmered in a daunting invitation.

A backdoor.

Another way out.

Lightning crackled. Aviel climbed to his feet, murder in his gaze. I had to keep him distracted before he noticed Tobias’s getaway attempt, or everything would be lost.

With a grim smile, I raised my sword, and let my darkness rage. It whipped around me, fighting against Aviel’s light, shielding myanimaand my brother as they ran.

With a surge of vengeance, I sent a spear of unwavering darkness toward the False King, pouring every ounce of my hatred at what he had done to me into an unrelenting attack?—

It found him. But it wasn’t enough.

A ball of bluish-white light grew around Aviel, ripping my darkness apart as it swelled. His power was something else altogether, and mine somehow already exhausted trying to keep him at bay. I yelped at the onslaught, fumbling to hold on to the tether to my darkness as my grip frayed. My punishment for not properly pacing myself.

Light seared into me, blinding me. I slammed into the wall behind me, crying out as something cracked from the impact. Aviel’s stolen light broke my darkness apart, burning into the very core of my magic. Ripping into me, breaking me as more soldiers rushed forward to surround my friends, wielding steel and ice and flame.

There were too many of them.

My vision blurred, but I saw those familiar bands of light ensnare Yael, then Rivan as my eyes slitted against their blinding glare. Watched as one dragged Bash back from the edge of the room that held the mirror, trapping his hands to his sides as his shadows flared.

They struggled, fighting to no avail. Those bands of light forced them to their knees in front of the False King.

How is it possible that he’s so powerful?

My brother was gone. Bash must have gotten him to safety through the mirror. I felt a flash of relief that he had listened to me, going against his instinct to stay at my side to do what I asked of him.

Aviel let out a scream of rage and I knew he realized who was now missing.

I tried to stand, to fight. But the attempt made the room swim strangely, the pain making my body tremor.

Aviel raised his hands. With a jolt of horror, I realized he was stealing their magic. A steady stream of shadow poured out of Bash’s mouth, his chest. His pain coupled with my own, agony driving down our bond in a jagged torrent. Silvery air wrenched from Yael, her mouth open in a silent scream. A greenish thread tore from Rivan as his bellows ripped through the air.

All at once it stopped. They pitched forward, gasping.

I reached for the darkness inside me, desperate for anything to stop this. But only wisps of my power greeted me, that well now dry. Not nearly enough to save them.

Panic roared in my ears, everything too bright, too loud. Aviel’s light forced Bash, Yael, and Rivan to the floor, pressing their faces painfully against the marble as they struggled hopelessly to dislodge themselves from his searing grasp.

I bit my tongue, tasting iron. Dots filled my vision as I forced myself unsteadily to my feet through sheer willpower alone. Gritting my teeth against the pull of unconsciousness?—

I wouldnotfail them.

“Now let’s see how long I can hold your breath,” Aviel said, his voice full of callous indifference.

No.

A blistering band of light dug into the skin of Bash’s wrists, choking his last flicker of shadow. Blood dripped down his arms as he fought to free himself, just as another band wrapped sinisterly around his throat. Yael’s string of muffled curses cut off as her face was slammed into the ground—blood streaming from her nose—as a band of light around her neck choked off her air. Rivan was roaring, battling against the bands that bound his hands behind his back. Then another covered his mouth, suffocating him.

There was pure, deep-rooted terror across our bond, and I remembered that this was exactly how Bash lost his father. Voiceless screaming filled my ears as I let my sword drop from my fingers, all traces of my darkness leaving it. I barely noticed as it clattered to the floor.

My heart in my throat, I made myself walk forward. Aviel’s pale eyes flared with triumph as I fell to my knees before him, not even feeling the impact of my bones against the cool marble. I choked back my shudder as a pulse of Aviel’s power slithered over me, my eyes never leaving his.

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